Phriday Photoblogs

It's Friday, and given the lightness of the day, today's post will be of a lighter nature. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I like photography. I've been dabbling a little in it myself, but what I really like to do is look at other people's pictures. Particularly, I like photo streams and blogs that feature some of the old, worn-out buildings and structures around the Twin Cities, like the Washburn "A" Mill and Mill Ruins Park. Yes, I even like some of the street art and graffiti.
I found a few links that though they may not be Twin Cities related, they are stil very cool. And like I said, it's Friday and it should be fun.

Abandoned Ireland is a photo blog of the ruins and abandoned buildings that litter the landscape of the Emerald Isle. There is a lonely beauty in the deterioration of ancient architecture. What I really like about this site is that the author and photographer go the distance to get information about the subject matter. I recommend the Castle Otway in Tipperary set and the Mountshannon House in County Limerick, but really I suggest looking at all of the photo sets on this site.

I don't quite remember how I stumbled across Artificial Owl, but I still don't think I've gone through all of the posts there yet. It is a photo blog dedicated to "the most fascinating abandoned man-made creations" from around the world. And they are fascinating. Lots of ghost towns and decaying ships run-aground. Of particular interest are these pics of the Robert Bruno steel house in Ransom Canyon near Lubbock, Texas, the abandoned concrete round house in Logan, Ohio, and the abandoned space hotel in San-chih,Taiwan. There are ghost towns and run aground ships in Minnesota, right? Where's my camera...

Finally, I very recently found Opacity, which is a sort-of photo stream of urban abandonment from around the world. The section on U.S. abandoned structures are kinda spooky: they all seem to be hospitals and schools! I don't need to tell you how many horror stories and movies revolve around those. Wouldn't catch me snapping photos in a place like the Bennett School for Girls or the Clairvaux Tuberculosis Hospital but I'm glad someone else does so I can look at them!

Of course, if this isn't quite you're idea of architectural and urban beauty, I'll end this post by mentioning and providing links for two Flickr groups that don't need much explaination. Be sure to check out The Beauty of St. Paul MN and the Best of Minneapolis.